1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in wine cup rack structures specifically a copper rod structure having two supporting bars on both sides of the lowest copper rods, respectively. The design of the supporting bars emphasizes on the advantage of being easily assembled on the copper rods and sustaining a glass plate on the top with stability.
2) Description of the Prior Art
Presently known and widely used wine cup rack as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 is mainly assembled as a frame body by horizontal and vertical copper rods (a), column caps (b) and a glass plate.
Pluralities of pairs of apertures (a1) are perforated on the bottom of the lowest two copper rods (a), on which pluralities of correspondent hangers (e) are established. The hangers (e) are at least one or more U-shaped rods (e1, e2) by pairs. The ends of each pair of U-shaped rods (e1, e2) are bent up on the inward side to be pierced through and fixed into the apertures (a1) on the bottom of both sides of copper rods (a). Pluralities of C-shaped blocks (f) are correspondently installed on the top of the lowest two copper rods (a) and each C-shaped block (f) has a fillister (f1) on the inward side thereof A glass plate (c) is installed in the Fillisters (f1) of pluralities of C-shaped blocks (f) on the upper side of two copper rods (a).
The installation of hangers (e) on this kind of wine cup rack structure firstly requires pluralities of apertures (a1) formed on the bottom of the lowest two copper rods (a) to be perforated at regular intervals. In addition, to achieve the function of, the regular intervals of those apertures (a1) have to be accurately measured for establishing the hangers (e), so that each pair of U-shaped rods (e1, e2) can keep a fixed interval in-between for wine cups to be suspended upside down on the hangers (e), after the installation of those hangers (e).
Therefore, not only the making of this kind of wine cup rack structure requires much time and/or work, but also the perforations have to be accurately measured; otherwise, the U-shaped rods (e1, e2) are unable to be installed on the hangers (e) or wine cups can not be hung upside down on the hangers (e) owing to different intervals among various pairs of U-shaped rods (e1, e2). If so, the wine cup rack fails to perform the functions.
In view of the foregoing drawbacks, a prior invention of an improvement in wine cup rack structure was being designed and registered by the inventor in USA with U.S. Pat. No. 6,357,607B1. The wine cup rack structure is designed for being installed inside a box-shaped wine cellar, but is not suitable for being applied to a cylindrical rack structure. With reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, a frame body is assembled by pluralities of copper rods (5) and pluralities of column caps (50). There are supporting bars (2) to be respectively established on both sides of the lowest two copper rods (5) for matching with hangers (3) and a glass plate (4) to form the whole frame body. The two supporting bars (2) are made by punched metal plate with integrated shape up and have two sets of chutes (21a) (21b), wherein the chute (21a) has an opening inwards; whereas the chute (21b) has an opening downwards. The hangers (3) are assembled by at least one or more sets of U-shaped rods (31) by pairs with regular intervals. Bases (32) are set to connect the both ends of the U-shaped rods (31), the lower part of which on the hangers (3) are bent inwards, so that the two bases (32) can be horizontally placed into the chutes (21b) of the supporting bars (2); the chute (21b) has an opening downwards. The glass plate (4) is horizontally placed into the chute (21a) of the supporting bars (2); the chute (21a) has an opening inwards.
According to the aforementioned structure assembly, the wine cup rack can be applied to those supporting plates between two wine cellars, in addition, can be hung from the top. The two supporting bars (2) are respectively fixed on the copper rods (5) between the supporting plates of the wine cellars by screws (51); whereas the glass plate (4) is embedded into two horizontal chutes (21a). The hangers (3) are placed into the chutes (21b) of the bases (32) to enable wine goblets (6) to be suspended by the goblet bases between the U-shaped rods (31).
In spite that said wine cup rack structure can simplify the assembly of presently known wine cup rack, there are still some drawbacks to be improved as follows,                1. As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 that the glass plate (4) has to be embedded into the chutes (21a) between the two supporting bars (2) in advance. Therefore, it is inconvenient for assembling the glass plate (4) into the chutes (21a), if the area of the glass plate (4) is bigger with heavier weight, moreover, the surface of the glass plate (4) is easily to generate scratches.        2. The two supporting bars (2) are more suitable to be externally fixed on flat boards. FIG. 9 shows that the two supporting bars (2) are not suitable to be fixed on copper rods (5), as it is easily to loosen and unscrew from both of the upper and lower sides.        3. According to the above, the perforations have to be made in advance if the screws (51) need to pierce through the supporting bars (2) to be fixed on copper rods (5). Therefore, the design of a wine cup rack requires accurate measurement in advance, or it is easily to generate slight differential intervals between holes without guided positioning.        